what a better way

[keannu]

This is about a Canadian English teacher who taught in a private institute and her effort to be close to Korean students by making her a Korean name. What is "what a better way"? Does "relate to" mean "getting close to" or "tell something to"? I don't get the underlined sentence.

ex).I thought what a better way to relate to my students than to choose a Korean nickname for myself. With the help of some older kids, I chose the name "Han Mina".

[5jj]

Getting the students to make a Korean name for her was a better way(of obtaining a Korean name) than choosing a Korean name for herself.

[keannu]

Getting the students to make a Korean name for her was a better way(of obtaining a Lorean name) than choosing a Korean name for herself.

Does "relate to" mean "getting involved with Korean students to make the name"? I think so.

[5jj]

Sorry, my previous response was not correct. This is closer:

Getting the students to make a Korean name for her was a better way (to relate to her students) than choosing a Korean name for herself.

relate to - be able to understand and have sympathy with sb/sth. OALD

[keannu]

I think "relate to my students" is "to make relationships with my students", but where does "Getting the students to make a Korean name for her" come from? Is it an inference? Maybe I'm being silly, I'm sorry!

I think "relate to" is just "tell something to somebody", so it's like this.
I thought what a better way (it was) to relate to my students than to choose a Korean nickname for myself
=I thought it was a better way to tell (about what name to make) to my students than to choose a Korean nickname for myself.

But i"m not sure, please confirm this. Help me!

[5jj]

I think "relate to my students" is "to make relationships with my students", but where does "Getting the students to make a Korean name for her" come from? Is it an inference? Maybe I'm being silly, I'm sorry!

No, it's me being silly this morning. My apologies.

This is about a Canadian English teacher who taught in a private institute and her effort to be close to Korean students by making her a Korean name.

That is not a good sentence. I somehow I read it as: This is about a Canadian English teacher who taught in a private institute and her effort to be close to Korean students by getting them to make her a Korean name.

Clearly that version is different from the original, so you need to ignore my previous posts. I apologise for wasting your time.

[keannu]

No, it's me being silly this morning. My apologies.

This is about a Canadian English teacher who taught in a private institute and her effort to be close to Korean students by making her a Korean name.

That is not a good sentence. I somehow I read it as: This is about a Canadian English teacher who taught in a private institute and her effort to be close to Korean students by getting them to make her a Korean name.

Clearly that version is different from the original, so you need to ignore my previous posts. I apologise for wasting your time.

I was the origin of the confusion, "by making her a Korean name" is what I made, it's not part of the writing. It was she who tried to make a name for herself, not getting others to do it. She just wanted to make a Korean name for herself.

I think "relate to" is just "tell something to somebody", so it's like this.
I thought what a better way (it was) to relate to my students than to choose a Korean nickname for myself
=I thought it was a better way to tell (about what name to make) to my students than to choose a Korean nickname for myself.

But i"m not sure, please confirm this. Help me!

[emsr2d2]

One thing seems to have been missed in the thread. We don't generally say "I thought what a better way..."

I would use reported speech:

I thought "What better way to get close to my students than to make a Korean name for myself?"

As you can see, we say "What better way..." not "What a better way..."